Sweet Yet Sour

Weekend Get-Away

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | The Daily Special | No Comments

Mike and I headed up to Laura and Nate’s mountain retreat this weekend to spend some time with them, which is rare, and do some relaxing. We took Cash, since he seems to get along well with Duke and Milan, and he likes getting away from the cats.

We all had a really good time and we ate a lot, which is one of my favorite pastimes. We were up at the house in time for lunch on Saturday and so we headed into Nederland to a place that Laura and Nate recommended for the barbeque and beer. Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery you are my new favorite place for BBQ! I had the most tender beef brisket on a sandwich that I have ever had, with the best sauce! There were several sauce choices, and I chose the “Memphis” because that’s what Nate and Mike were ordering with their pulled pork sandwiches. Spicy, a little hot, but not overwhelming and so good with the beef brisket, I haven’t had any pregnancy cravings, but I could develop one for this stuff!

After lunch we burned a little of lunch off by walking around Nederland and went to visit the used bookstore. It wasn’t anything special, but it could do in a pinch; I wandered by the “Culture Studies” section and I could have sworn that a fellow anthropology major sold off all their books in this store. Come on, why didn’t you keep your book on the Yanomamo?

After that we wandered around while Mike took pictures of an old wagon and strayed into a small furniture store. Beautiful handmade items, all simple and Amish in style and the man who makes most of the stuff was in the store. It’s so nice to know that you can still find places where you can meet the person who handcrafts the furniture. Laura and I are going to get Nate to buy a walnut dining room table from this guy if it kill us, this stuff was so well done.

After that we headed back home, up the “Seven turns of death” road, to sit around and do very little. We ate elk stew and nibbled on the Lemon Cake bars and Cherry Chocolate Pastry bars I had brought up. (I’ve put the recipe for the Cherry Chocolate Bars up on the RRC website.) We played Boggle and Trivial Pursuit (Pop Culture, 80’s and 90’s) until it was very late and those people who can drink (not me) were too woozy to focus on the questions.

We finished the Trivial Pursuit game off in the morning after some excellent bacon and eggs prepared by Nate, with my Sourdough English Muffins as a side dish. I lolled around on the couch with my book while the others walked up the hill with the dogs, and then darn, it was time to head home. All in all, an excellent weekend. I love taking these little mini-vacations where I can take my dog (who spent the entire weekend on a dog bed as if he had never seen a soft place before in his life) and be home in an hour. Thanks Nate and Laura! Did we do anything but eat? Oh who cares! It was all so good!

AFI’s Top 100 Movies – With Additions

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | The Daily Special | No Comments

This is AFI’s list of 100 Top Movies. The new list will be out later this month. Highlight the ones you’ve seen, add 5 more at the bottom, and post to your blog.

1 CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2 GODFATHER, THE (1972)
3 CASABLANCA (1942)
4 RAGING BULL (1980)
5 SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)
6 GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
8 SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
9 VERTIGO (1958)
10 WIZARD OF OZ, THE (1939)
11 CITY LIGHTS (1931)
12 SEARCHERS, THE (1956)
13 STAR WARS (1977)
14 PSYCHO (1960)
15 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
16 SUNSET BLVD. (1950)
17 GRADUATE, THE (1967)
18 GENERAL, THE (1927)
19 ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
20 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
21 CHINATOWN (1974)
22 SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
23 GRAPES OF WRATH, THE (1940)
24 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
25 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
26 MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
27 HIGH NOON (1952)
28 ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
29 DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
30 APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
31 MALTESE FALCON, THE (1941)
32 GODFATHER PART II, THE (1974)
33 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
34 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
35 ANNIE HALL (1977)
36 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE (1957)
37 BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE (1946)
38 TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE (1948)
39 DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
40 SOUND OF MUSIC, THE (1965)
41 KING KONG (1933)
42 BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
43 MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
44 PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE (1940)
45 SHANE (1953)
46 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
47 STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, A (1951)
48 REAR WINDOW (1954)
49 INTOLERANCE (1916)
50 LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE (2001)
51 WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
52 TAXI DRIVER (1976)
53 DEER HUNTER, THE (1978)
54 M*A*S*H (1970)
55 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
56 JAWS (1975)
57 ROCKY (1976)
58 GOLD RUSH, THE (1925)
59 NASHVILLE (1975)
60 DUCK SOUP (1933)
61 SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (1941)
62 AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
63 CABARET (1972)
64 NETWORK (1976)
65 AFRICAN QUEEN, THE (1951)
66 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
67 WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
68 UNFORGIVEN (1992)
69 TOOTSIE (1982)
70 CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (1971)
71 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
72 SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE (1994)
73 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
74 SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE (1991)
75 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
76 FORREST GUMP (1994)
77 ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976)
78 MODERN TIMES (1936)
79 WILD BUNCH, THE (1969)
80 APARTMENT, THE (1960)
81 SPARTACUS (1960)
82 SUNRISE (1927)
83 TITANIC (1997)
84 EASY RIDER (1969)
85 NIGHT AT THE OPERA, A (1935)
86 PLATOON (1986)
87 12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
88 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
89 SIXTH SENSE, THE (1999)
90 SWING TIME (1936)
91 SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982)
92 GOODFELLAS (1990)
93 FRENCH CONNECTION, THE (1971)
94 PULP FICTION (1994)
95 LAST PICTURE SHOW, THE (1971)
96 DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
97 BLADE RUNNER (1982)
98 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
99 TOY STORY (1995)
100 BEN-HUR (1959)

I like that there is a lot of Hitchcock on this list and that they have a lot of Katherine Hepburn movies, but clearly they are lacking some really good movies that should be on here.  And frankly, there’s way too many westerns on here. Yuck.  So here are the ones that I would add:

1. Dial M for Murder (classic Hitchcock with Grace Kelly, 1954)

2. Gaslight (husband tries to make his beautiful wife, Ingrid Berman, go insane, 1944)

3. Adam’s Rib (Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn debate about women’s equality, 1949)

4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (”Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government.” 1975)

5. Harvey (Jimmy Stewart and his six-foot tall rabbit/Pooka named Harvey, 1950)

6. Arsenic and Old Lace (Cary Grant and his sweet aunts that kill, 1944) – I couldn’t resist adding another, because I love this movie and I couldn’t limit myself to a list that did not contain one of my favorites.